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"You ready?"
"Been ready for a while now..."
I nodded at Vik, who was sitting next to me. I was lying in his ripperdoc chair. It had been a week since I lost my arm and leg, and in that time, all my new parts had been delivered, so he decided to install everything at once.
What else had happened in that week?
Well, Dex and Faraday continued trying to recruit the girls. Dex even lowered himself to the gutter and met us in his limo, very persistently offering the girls a ride with him. Naturally, they turned him down. And while they held back from telling him to fuck off, the guy took the refusal with an expression that made it clear he wouldn't forget it.
Faraday was a bit more squeamish and sent his goons after us. The girls' answer was always the same, though. They just refused. And if Dex was pretty restrained, maybe because he was wary of me, or maybe it was just his nature, Faraday's goons actually tried to threaten us. We "calmed" them down by sending them to the clinic...
We also finally got Vik to come to a barbecue. And that meeting went more than great. Good food, drinks, conversation...
"Alright, then, when you wake up, you'll be good as new..."
I grinned.
"That's good to hear..."
"Alright, go on, sleep..."
And he injected me with the medication that made my eyes close instantly.
"Alright, let's go..."
I was tapped on the shoulder, and I opened my eyes a bit. I wasn't sleepy at all. Then I slowly raised both of my hands and looked at them. I clenched and unclenched my fists, then just as slowly sat up.
"Vik..."
I got up from the ripperdoc chair without a rush and took a couple of test steps.
"...you're a wizard."
"Hmm, you bet! You know..."
There was sadness and a little embarrassment in his voice.
"...when you have good chrome and good medicine, being a wizard isn't that hard. It's much harder with those who try to save every eddy, trying to use cheap meds, either expired or from unreliable companies, or chrome from scavs. And it's not just from scavs; the chrome isn't even fresh..."
"Did that really get to you?"
"You have no idea..."
"Well..."
I scratched my cheek thoughtfully.
"...I can't help with that... unless..."
"Unless..."
Vik looked at me with interest.
"Unless you'd want to become a nomad and take the position of ripperdoc in the Aldecaldo clan."
Vik winced.
"The conditions there are..."
"That was then... now the clan has a lot of tech. We still have to get it ready, but in general, one Behemoth will be completely converted into a ripperdoc's office. So everything will be at a high enough level."
Vik glanced thoughtfully toward the clinic's exit. Or not exactly the exit. In short, I knew perfectly well that he was looking in the direction of Misty's shop. And, naturally, he shook his head, refusing my offer.
"No..."
"Well, if that's how you feel... but in my opinion, it's stupid... if you're going to suffer the way you suffer, you should either act..."
I also nodded toward Misty's shop.
"...or leave everything behind and make a drastic change to your life."
"Kid... are you going to teach me how to live now?"
Vik looked at me with sadness, but at the same time, I could see that the topic wasn't unpleasant for him. On the contrary, he was happy that he had someone to talk to. And even if that someone was a kid who was three or four times younger than him, it still meant something...
"Well, unlike you, I already have two girls, and another three are next in line."
"Three? I thought Kiwi wasn't into you; she's got a thing for Placide, right?"
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"Let's be honest, who would give up a girl like that? Besides, she's into him right now, but what happens when it gets real?"
"So?"
"Well... first, the question of where to live will come up... she's been living with us for a few weeks now, and I'm the one who takes care of the food in our crew. The girls, at most, can make tea. And they all love to eat good food..."
"Are you saying good food is your clever plan?"
"I wouldn't call it a plan, more like a subconscious action to get their attention. I only started to think about how this might turn out a week ago. Before that, I just cooked delicious food and enjoyed their happy faces."
"I get you there..."
"Speaking of happy faces..."
"Huh?"
Vik looked at me in surprise.
"How's our mutual friend who's trying to make it to the big leagues?"
"Well, V herself got a bit of an upgrade... I can't say the chrome she chose is for the big leagues, but... in general, she's getting herself ready... She went to see the Maelstrom recently; there were some problems there..."
I made a mental note. So they've already got the bot. That means they've either found a brain master who processed all the data Parker got for them, or that's their next step. And considering that Dex is still bothering us...
"What about Jackie?"
"What about him?"
"Well, did that big guy come to see you? Get chrome installed?"
"No..."
"Well, then don't worry, you'll have a chance to first comfort Misty, and then show her that she'll be better off with you."
"Huh?"
"Vik, a big-league job is no small thing. Wakako, who they worked with, never gives out top-tier gigs. It's a middle-tier job... But you should understand that you can't do much with middle-tier chrome... I only got by with my skills and the number of runners I had. Three runners is a powerful thing, and I've got an experimental Sandevistan that, to be honest, is way cooler than what a lot of corpos in the big leagues can afford..."
"Yeah, that's true..."
Vik frowned.
"...oh, no..."
I shook my head.
"What?"
"Vik, don't do it... don't show off your generosity..."
"David, you pay for your girls yourself, and it's understandable that you pay for Panam and Judy; they're your girls, but Lucy, Becca, and Kiwi... yeah, you're targeting them, but still... to pay for them... those kinds of sums..."
I sighed.
"Damn it, Vik, are you a fucking saint?"
"No, but Jackie's my friend... and I don't want to stand at his funeral and tell a story from our life..."
I sighed again.
"Fuck... you fucking saint..."
I repeated those words when I saw his eyes light up. It looked like he'd decided to call Jackie personally and offer him new chrome on credit. And as I looked at him now, I wondered if I could do the same. And I had to admit that I probably couldn't...
"Alright, fine..."
He clapped me on the shoulder when his eyes went out, and he turned his attention back to me.
"...come on, get up and get dressed. You're fine now, but for the next month, it's better not to go on combat missions. Get used to your new abilities, because your muscles, while having the same capabilities, are still much more powerful than your previous ones. I chose them so that they, in combination with your new skeleton, could give you their full one hundred percent. Of course, I could've put in more powerful ones, but you wanted a skeleton that was roughly the same weight as a normal human one, so we need to figure out what capabilities you have now."
"Uh-huh... what about the skin and subdermal armor?"
"Well, your subdermal armor is powerful now, but you have to understand, if you get hit with a hail of bullets, it'll hold up, but your skin..."
Vik shook his head.
"...you'll have to replace your skin. And if you move too fast, don't forget that the friction of your skin against the air will be very unpleasant."
I sighed.
"Don't worry; I already have a suit ready for myself."
"Hmm?"
"I took a runner's suit as a base, put on a bit of armor so it wouldn't restrict my movement, and also a helmet to protect my face. So I hope my body will be protected from the forces of friction, and from bullets, too... The armor I put on should protect me from them. But I shouldn't get into a massive firefight, that's for sure..."
As I said that, I got to my clothes and dressed slowly. No, I could've moved faster, but I was still barely sensing the limits of my body, except that I understood it had become much stronger than before...
"Alright, I'm going..."
"Go on, go on..."
I left Viktor's clinic, then walked calmly toward Misty's shop, where my girls were waiting for me. They had decided to come with me. Yeah, we all knew that a trip with so many of us was pointless, but the girls really wanted to talk to Misty, and they were worried about me.
"And here I am..."
I walked into the shop and, to my surprise, saw not only my girls and Misty but also V, who had a slightly displeased look on her face.
"David..."
She nodded at me.
My girls were much less reserved. Panam came up to me, looked me over carefully, unzipped my jacket, and after making me take it off, she pulled up the sleeve of my T-shirt. Only after making sure there were no traces of me having lost a limb did she nod with satisfaction and give me a gentle kiss on the lips.
While I was getting dressed again, Judy came over. She didn't undress me; she just looked me in the eyes, nodded, and kissed me. Then Lucy and Becca came over and kissed me on the cheeks. Kiwi was the last to come up to me, and after giving Judy and Panam a mocking glance, she kissed me on the lips.
To say I was in shock would be an understatement...
She's got a thing for Placide... or not anymore?
Yeah, the kiss was light, weightless, and innocent, but in general, it was a signal...
"I see you're back in one piece."
"Yeah, and I see Dex hasn't given up on trying to get me to work? Or if not me, at least my girls? That's why you came here, right?"
"Yeah..."
She frowned even more.
"...what's his deal with you?"
"He's probably not used to being turned down, but honestly, my answer still hasn't changed. No, we're not going to work for Dex."
She sighed.
"I suspected you'd say that... and that client... she's practically throwing a tantrum, saying that only your Judy can process the data she got..."
I shrugged.
"That's not our problem... V, I don't want to have anything to do with Dex..."
"Yeah, you already said that... but as a solo, I had to come and talk to you."
She sighed and turned to leave.
"You're sure?"
She threw the phrase back at me as she stood in the doorway of Misty's shop.
"I'm sure. We have a ton of other things to do right now..."
And that was true. In the past two weeks, they had made me the clan leader, and we had already started to work with the tech from the police warehouses. It wasn't intact or new, of course, but... there were parts, too, so we were doing the repairs on-site. I also didn't forget to work on Regina's and Rogue's jobs, just the tech gigs. And even just by doing those, we were getting decent money, since the girls helped me with the tech parts, and I helped them when it came to setting up the ICE.
V left the shop, and I answered a call that came in at that very moment. It's so true what they say: everything that can happen, happens at once, just to make it as inconvenient as possible.
"Listening, Regina."
"David, you gave me a job..."
"Hmm?"
I stood on guard, since there was only one job I had left for Regina recently. For training shards...
"You got them?"
"Yeah, though I have to admit, it wasn't easy and it wasn't cheap..."
"How much?"
She told me the price, and I almost groaned in pain. It was almost all of my savings. I wouldn't have a safety net left after paying for this. But it was worth it, right?
"Alright... I'm transferring the payment..."
"Payment received. How do you want me to get the shards to you?"
"We'll pick them up ourselves... I have no desire to hand stuff like that over to a third party."
"Heh, I get it... and I hope you'll be back to combat gigs soon..."
"Not for at least two weeks... though the ripperdoc said a month, but I'm still hoping that by following his advice, I'll be ready for combat ops sooner."
"Alright... so, only tech gigs for now?"
"Yeah."
"Good..."
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